The present invention relates to a semiconductor device comprising an electronic circuit for transmitting signals between devices or integrated devices easily and at high speed.
Technical advances realized in recent years for the process of manufacturing semiconductor devices have been extremely successful in obtaining integrated devices of extremely high density.
However, when large numbers of these high performance elements or devices are mounted in multitude on a printed circuit board or the like, the situation is such that a high density application of the device rather complicates a mechanism of signal transmission between the devices, and processing time of signals is restricted by the time for signal transmission between elements or devices instead of an operating time of the device. That is, an increase of mutual capacitance or a drop of driving voltage results from a high integration, a signal crosstalk is thus problematical, and a crosstalk according to an increase in number of connected wires between the devices is also at issue. In view of the situation, a method has been proposed for using light to transmit signals between the devices. ("OPTICAL INTERCONNECTIONS FOR VLSI SYSTEMS", by J. W. Goodman et al., Proc. of IEEE, Vol. 72, July 1974, P850 to P866.)
However, nothing is particularly referred to therein in regard to a concrete construction such as mounting technique and the like and a high performance technique such as wavelength multiplexing and the like.
As mentioned above, technical measures become necessary for enhancing signal transmission performance between elements in an integrated device or between integrated devices according to a high integration and high speed operation of elements and devices.